Random Mark V chat...

[Chester]

Marks gain is from the preamp circuit, which is why it sounds great at low volume- I'm not completely positive that volume impacts the actual saturation that much or simply amplifies it when taken higher. Someone else can chime in who has more expertise

Recently been playing around with = C ='s and GT 6L6GEs as replacements for STR 420 / 440's. The C's have it hands down for both response and detail, and the saturation is markedly different. My take away is that the power section imparts it's character on the amp's tone and response, and for my style of playing, lower chanel masters / high master output works a treat

 

[hendrik84]

I set up my amp last night on the 10W setting and Variac power. Using Tweed mode for crunchy rhythm and the Edge mode for clean. Sounds great! Edge mode keeps surprising me. It's such a versatile mode. And with tons of Voxy chime if you want. And I could easily go from clean to gritty cleans with slight adjustments of the gain and master.

 

[kraftwerkd]

I've been loving the different wattage levels on the MKV. Like others have said regarding channel 1, to get that real clean tone I need to have it on 90w. I'm going to keep fussing about with 45w (diode) on channel 1 and see what happens, but I'm constantly finding even with the gain at 9:00 there's still some breakup. Not much, but it's there. Could be one of my speakers, however. I've got it on Fat mode with the Bold switch engaged, and when I'm playing through the neck pickup it sounds great. Then again, I only play through my neck pickup..

Channel 2, however, is where the real magic lies for me. I can get down with Edge and Crunch, but Mark I mode is the winner. With the gain at 10:00 or so and some fine EQ tweaking I can get some nice desert influenced guitar tones. It seems to really favour 45w (tube), and when I drive it with a Micro Amp it opens up very nicely. 90w is just more of a good thing it seems, and I love the way it breathes but for some strange reason I just like 45w better. Great for doing some louder riffing or leads.

Channel 3 is still a strange one for me, but I've gotten some interesting sounds out of all three wattage settings. I don't do much metal besides a little High On Fire or Tool here or there, but the Mark IV mode seems to deliver just enough bite, however comparing it to some of the other channels I find the amount of low end is slightly lacking. Haven't tried dialing in Extreme too much but that might be my next stop. Pentode is my preference, though I still want to explore Triode a bit more. Just a side note, all my experiments so far have been on full power. I've yet to give Variac and long listen.

I'm still only a couple months into owning this amp, but I can say as a newcomer the most satisfying part has been experimenting. Finding a good part of the tone that I've been chasing has been rewarding enough, but the variety of tones that I have at my fingertips on top of that is like having my cake and eating it too.

 

[screamingdaisy]

Bumping this thread. It's pretty interesting reading my old comments, remembering what caused me to say them and comparing it to where I'm at currently.

Anyway... A couple weeks ago there was a thread asking about the Widebody Ported/Thiele cabs. It's been so long (2012) since I've used MC90s in them I decided to reload my Mini-Stack of Doom (1x12 open back on a 1x12 front ported) with them and force myself to use them for awhile to get a feel for them again.

First of all, I really like these speakers. I still prefer V30s and Recto cabs, but the Widebody cabs and MC90s are very nice. To me they invoke an 80s like vibe... Strong top and bottom end response with a more relaxed, yet fairly even midrange. I like how their top end brilliance give a very classic sound to lead guitar and clean tones without without being ear piercing. The bottom end is really full and round. It reminds me why the classic Boogie mini-stack is such a giant slayer.

Compared to a Recto cab the MC90 Mini-Stack is more mellow and even with a more classic vibe. Brilliant top, deep bottom, relaxed midrange.

Compared to the MC90 Mini-Stack a Recto 2x12 is all midrange with a rolled off top and bottom end. Tighter and warmer with a very aggressive crunch, percussive response and without the sizzle you get off MC90s.

In the end I'm glad I did this.

On a different note, I have a new found respect for the preset EQs. I was using them for the speaker testing to simplify dialing in the amp for different speakers. Looking back in this thread there was apparently a time when I really liked them, but I grew away from them over time. I think a lot of my issue with both the MC90s and preset EQ was my old house. It was very echoey and I tended to fight the top end a lot. My new house is much more acoustically dead so the top end is much more balanced and I can get away with having more present. i never used to use settings above 12:00 because of how much top end they added, but now I can go all the way to the right and still get usable tones. This has opened up a lot of new options for me as it's much easier to sweep a knob to find a useable sound than it is to fine-tune a 5 band EQ.

 

[Wayno]

Hi all, hope this thread is still alive!

I have enjoyed reading through this thread and absorbing all the different idea's and tonal possibilities, im so glad i took the plunge and shelled out the money for this amp. I too have recently found the benefits of running in 45w mode, i always just ran in full 90w mode with my band as i just assumed i needed all the headroom i could get. Changing to EL34 ii's the other week i noticed straight away a bump in volume so changed down to 45w mode and just ran the master volume a little higher and really liked the extra bit of grind i got from my settings. Next practice im gonna try running the master volume higher still and backing off on the channel masters like a few of you have suggested on this thread and another thread that i saw oldtelecasterman say the same thing. Hopefully that warms things up even more!

Hope there's still a few of you out there,

Cheers.